The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Taking Care of Business is less a "Ha-Ha" funny comedy than a likable guy running around getting into mischief at the expense of an uptight business guy. What is more of a shock is that James Belushi is the likable guy, and that aside from the "I can't believe you tried that" mini ponytail that he sports for the film you really hope he gets away with things such as escaping from prison. Now thanks to According to Jim I actually hope Belushi doesn't get away with things and is thrown to prison.Belushi is Jimmy Dworski, an inmate at a small time prison who is due for release any day. When he wins tickets to see his beloved baseball team in the World Series he begs the warden to let him out a day early. No dice. (I agree too, a sentence is a sentence. You do the crime…) So with the ease bestowed upon movie characters within hours Dworski is out while his fellow inmates cover up for him by staging a strike and holding "Jimmy" hostage.Charles Grodin is Spencer Barnes, an uptight advertising exec working and slaving under a demanding boss hoping for the ever elusive promotion. Much to his wife's chagrin he is sent to LA to win a big account with a Japanese firm. Spencer's life is dictated by a folder that he carries with him at all times with schedules, phone numbers and vital info in it… nowadays we call it a Blackberry but this was 1989.Guess what he loses? And guess what Jimmy picks up? So 1 lost folder becomes one guy's mistaken identity and one guy's misfortune. Spencer is mugged, dumped by his wife, fired and thrown in jail all in the same day, each time falling back in desperation on the same shrill voiced woman that he met on his flight.Meanwhile Jimmy lives in a massive house, is wined and dined, plays tennis, drives fast cars, and bangs the hotttttttttt daughter of Spencer's boss, all the while going by that same moniker. Of course Jimmy becomes a successful ad-exec in about 10 minutes, impresses everyone with his "maverick" style and no-one realizes the mistaken identity, but these are the sacrifices you make to enjoy films like this.When Spencer and Jimmy finally meet they each learn something about themselves, awwwww, and Jimmy must break back into jail unnoticed so that he can be released and they can both continue their friendship. It must be said that it seems the businessman learns more than the convict, I'm not sure what type of message this sends to the kids… As I mentioned there aren't much in the way of big gags in this film, but it generally keeps a smirk on your face and is a quite enjoyable 90 odd minutes. Perfect for killing a couple hours on the weekend with offending the missus with a violent film or a horror, whilst avoiding the inevitable rom-com suggestions that arise at such times.Final Rating – 7 / 10. Probably hard to even track down nowadays, but a harmless film and worth watching if only to remind you there was a time when Belushi was less annoying.

Jimmy Dworski {James Belushi} has two days to go before his release from prison {he's a car thief you see}. Upon hearing a contest on the radio to win two tickets to see the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, he promptly phones in a wins the tickets. But after unsuccessfully haggling with the vengeful warden {Hector Elizondo} for early release, Jimmy breaks out of the big house and stumbles upon the treasured Filofax of advertisement executive Spencer Barnes {Charles Grodin}. As Spencer stumbles around a broken man without his Filofax, Jimmy starts to live the high life as Spencer Barnes.Well it's not really an out and out buddy movie till the last quarter, something that some writers have failed to mention. The preceding three quarters of the film follows the two role switch protagonists as they go about their merry/miserable ways respectively. Sounds like Trading Places eh? Well yes, that's because it is really. Here in lies the problem with Taking Care Of Business {AKA Filofax}, it's been done far better before and director Arthur Hiller and writers Jill Mazursky/J.J. Abrams either hadn't the nous, or the need, to at least instill some much needed deviation from the formula of such movies. So in the pantheon of role swap comedies, Taking Care Of Business is pretty much little league. So with that in mind it's something of an unexpected surprise to find it's actually very likable, thanks to the spirited turns offered up by Belushi & Grodin.Belushi here was on the back of buddy buddy comedies Red Heat & K-9, which, like or loath them? Garnered a cult fan base and showed Belushi to have an appealing comedic charm that people could warm too. Grodin had done the quite excellent Midnight Run with Robert DeNiro three years earlier, so both men were in familiar territory and both deliver entertaining contrasts of character. Belushi does his street wise child in a mans body act whilst Grodin lays on the softly spoken, anal whiner for maximum impact. The result of which just about stops the uninspired script from sinking the movie. Anne De Salvo, Loryn Locklin, Stephen Elliott, Veronica Hamel & Mako are in support, with Locklin not only providing a truly sexy moment, but also playing off Belushi's ebullience rather well.With some nice gags, genuinely funny scenes, and its two enjoyable leads, Taking Care Of Business is just about worth giving your time to. But any expectation of a new and interesting slant on the Prince And The Pauper theme will only end up in crushing disappointment. 6/10

Taking Care of Business: 2/5 StarsA buddy movie is only as good as its buddies -- Gibson and Glover, Hoffman and Cruise, Milo and Otis, Hanks and Hooch. But there is one more element a buddy movie needs: A script. "Taking Care of Business" apparently forgot about the script and went straight on to its business.Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin are the film's main stars. They've both been in buddy films before. Belushi was in "K-9," and Grodin was in "Midnight Run" with Robert De Niro, the better of the two (by far). So it's more than generous to say they have had experience with these kinds of films. So why, oh, why didn't they realize what they were getting into when they signed onto this film?Belushi is the messy one, a Chicago Cubs fan who escapes from his minimum-security prison to cheer his team on at the World Series. Grodin is the neat one, a Filofax-fixated adman who loses his precious date book on the way to shmooze a client in Los Angeles. You'll never guess who finds and attempts to return the daily planner to the Malibu address inside. Belushi is a kind, sweet, gentle man, who just happens to be an excellent car thief. He drives over to Grodin's home in LA-style environments, to find no one home. But along the way he is mistaken for Grodin himself, and is given the good-life. Meanwhile, the real Grodin has been beaten up on his way to Malibu, drugged out and unconscious. But Belushi doesn't care, because he doesn't know Grodin, and why should he care if he has single-handedly taken his every identity? Directed by Arthur Hiller, "Taking Care of Business" is a "Trading Places"-story with new faces and a lesser script. It's not an awful film, it's not even a bad film, but it's not particularly original, entertaining nor exciting. Charles Grodin, who I have always enjoyed on-screen, really ruined his own career. I really like the guy, but when he had fame, he went for the cheap films. I know he said he never really liked acting a whole lot, but still...you'd think that he would at least try to go for something good now and then. "Taking Care of Business" isn't bad. But it's not nearly as good as it should have been. The script was forgotten and the actors came up with material gags along the way. Proof of this is how no one realized the audience could never care for these apparently brick-like, shallow, one-dimensional figures. Jim Belushi is supposed to be a sweet guy, but he's a car thief and God-knows what else. Things like this make the audience confused: Are we supposed to be caring for these characters as events in their lives roll out on screen in humorous ways, are we supposed to identify with them, or are they there simply as excuses for cheap gags? Personally, I could go another lifetime without trying to find out.

I fell in love with this movie the first time I saw it, although the script is not brilliant the cast made a great effort and made it very convincing, James Belushi plays nice guy convict Jimmy Dworfski as he plans to escape prison for the weekend to see the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, getting his fellow in-mates to cover it up. While out he finds business executive Spencer Barnes (Charles Grodin) filofax and takes over his life. Belushi & Grodin are great together in this feel good comedy, as a lover of Baseball I was drawn to this even more, but if you're not you'll still find it just as enjoyable. This is the best James Belushi film I've seen!